Glossary
Plain definitions of the terms behind cold outreach, finding buyers, and agents that do the work. No jargon defended, and the parts that are inconvenient for us said anyway.
Outreach and deliverability
Writing to people who have not heard of you, and the plumbing that decides whether the message arrives at all.
- Cold emailCold email is a first message to someone who never asked to hear from you. What separates it from spam, and what the law actually requires.
- Email deliverabilityEmail deliverability is whether your email reaches the inbox rather than the spam folder. What decides it, and what you can actually control.
- Email authentication: SPF, DKIM and DMARCSPF, DKIM and DMARC are the three DNS records that prove your email is really from you. What each one does and why all three are needed.
- Domain warmupEmail warmup, or domain warmup, is ramping a new sending domain slowly so providers learn to trust it. Why volume on day one gets you filtered.
- Sender reputationSender reputation is the score mailbox providers keep on your domain. What feeds it, and how long it takes to repair.
- Email verificationEmail verification checks an address exists before you send to it. Why it is the cheapest protection for a sending domain.
- Suppression listA suppression list holds the email addresses you must never contact again: unsubscribes, hard bounces and complaints. Why it has to be shared across everything you send.
- Email bounce rateEmail bounce rate is the share of sent emails that came back undelivered. What separates a hard bounce from a soft bounce email, and what a good rate looks like.
- Email open rateThe email open rate formula is opens divided by emails delivered. How an open is counted, why the number stopped being reliable, and what to measure instead.
- Email deliverability testAn email deliverability test checks authentication, blacklist status and inbox placement before you send. What it can and cannot tell you, and how often to run one.
- Cold email templateA cold email template is why most cold email fails: a recipient recognises one. The shape that gets replies, a worked example, and the format and subject lines to use.
Finding buyers
Working out who is worth writing to, and knowing when.
- Ideal customer profile (ICP)An ICP describes the kind of company that gets the most value from what you sell. How to build one from customers you already have.
- Lead enrichmentLead enrichment adds context to a name or a domain so you know whether it is worth contacting. What it can and cannot tell you.
- Buying signalA buying signal is an observable event suggesting a company needs what you sell now. Which signals are worth acting on.
- Reply rateReply rate is replies divided by emails delivered. What counts as good, and why it beats open rate as a measure.
- Cost per qualified leadCost per qualified lead is spend divided by the number of people worth talking to. How to count it honestly, and why published figures rarely compare.
- Outbound salesOutbound sales means going to buyers who have not come to you, by email, LinkedIn or phone. What it costs a small team, when a SaaS should start, and how to judge it.
Agentic growth
What it means for software to do the work rather than help you do it, and where a person still has to stand.
- AI agentAn AI agent is a model that takes actions towards a goal rather than answering prompts. What separates one from a chatbot.
- Growth agentA growth agent does marketing and sales work on its own schedule rather than helping you do it. How it differs from a marketing tool.
- Human in the loopHuman in the loop means a person approves specific actions an automated system takes. Where the checkpoint belongs.
- Generative engine optimization (GEO)GEO is making your content likely to be cited by AI answer engines like ChatGPT and Perplexity. How it differs from SEO.
- AI SDRAn AI SDR handles sales development work: finding prospects, writing first emails and handling replies. What the term covers, and where it stops.
- AI marketing agentAn AI marketing agent is software that decides and does marketing work on its own schedule. How it differs from automation, and what it should refuse.
- Autonomous marketingAutonomous marketing is software choosing the next marketing action itself, instead of running a rule. The ladder from automation to autonomy, and what keeps it safe.
Growing a SaaS
The words a founder meets when the product is built and the customers are not there yet: what the jobs are called, and what each one actually involves.
- SaaS marketingSaaS marketing gets a subscription product found, tried and kept. Learn how trials, pricing, retention and churn change the work for a small team.
- Founder-led salesFounder-led sales is the founder selling the product directly, before there is a sales team. Why it works early, when it stops, and what to hand off first.
- SaaS directoriesSaaS directories give a new product a backlink and a page where buyers compare. The ten worth filing to, their character limits, and what gets a listing rejected.